..fucking shit.
Sorry for the expletives, but I’m pretty sure the majority of Tap readers will excuse me once they see the video in question. No doubt you’ll have some choice words of your own, too.
Discovered by Stephen Chapman of ZDNet.com, the following video comes fresh from the inner sanctums of Microsoft’s “Windows Gaming eXperience” team. Dated from way back in May 2010, it’s clear that joe public wasn’t really meant to see this yet, otherwise we surely would have by now in an official capacity, but as we all know there’s little place for secrets on the internet these days.
Although not the first time that Microsoft has re-jigged its Games for Windows program, this could perhaps be the most harrowing vision of Microsoft’s desires yet committed to a three minute Youtube video. It features lots of avatars, lots of social integration and lots of paid for DLC; although the only firm details I took from the video are that all women do is play Farmville and shop for clothes while men go to work and shoot people. Apparently.
In other words, it’s a nice bit of free advertising for Steam.
Even as someone who spends 90% of their game time on consoles – and thus has been largely desensitised to such nonsense over a steady 5 year period – I found this video pretty ridiculous. In fact, I’ve just finished choking on my own vomit and now believe I’m suffering an aneurysm.
Check the video out below. Oh, and keep and eye out for slogans such as “Buying things enhances my gaming and entertainment experience.” Lulz.
Email the author of this post at matc@tap-repeatedly.com
Er… I don’t see the problem? I assume this is based on a hub much like Facebook or something? While much may be assumptive it’s certainly representative of demographics and reasonable stereotypes.
As for DLC and microtransactions, well that’s purely old hat isn’t it? Still- it’d never urge me to use anything Microsoft as Steam is just so good.
I don’t know what you mean by your comment about being a hub like Facebook. Given some of the language used and the emphasis places upon some of those features, it’s a safe assumption that these will be an integral part of Games for Windows Live.. tieing together their Xbox, WP7 and PC gaming strategies.
I’ve even seen it suggested that this will even be a major part of Windows 8, although this is just speculation and I’m not sure that Valve (or others) would sit and accept that for long.
If either of these things are true, or if the contents of this video do become a reality, then you can expect all those things to be tied into any games that use Games for Windows.
The long and short of it is that the experience of using GFW would become very console centric. Avatars, avatar games, micro-transactions and sales (that go far beyond those offered on other PC services, or by companies like Valve who are very supportive of free content), social features etc etc. Basically the very Xbox Live nature of the content in that video.. but for PC games. At least using GFW.
As someone who often criticises consoles for some of these features, or more the way they are controlled and handled at least, I’m not entirely sure why you’re so dismissive having watched that through. You’re also VERY critical of “casual” gaming (see your rants about Just Dance, Kinect sales figures etc), and here you have a video which lasts for a little over 3 minutes, and takes 2 minutes and 21 seconds to even start mentioning a gaming experience which fits into your demographic. Then ends with comments about “the future of PC gaming.”
How much this matters depends on how serious Microsoft are about it’s implementation. GFW is avoidable obviously but they might not stop there. As a console gamer I don’t like some of this stuff as it is (which is somewhat reflected in my personal choice of console.. ahem), and depending on Microsofts real intentions if I was a PC gamer I’d be a little concerned at the prospect of some of THAT experience being potentially forced upon me later down the line..
I find those block statements incredibly… creepy, like drugged people mindlessly reciting a koan.
“I can buy a new dress for my avatar, then play Bejeweled. This is what matters to me.”
CTRL+c, CTRL+v, ad infinitum.
For some reason I found those aspects especially disturbing, while your point about guys working and shooting shit (while girls sit at home, shop for dresses, and herd cows) takes a close second.
Ironically I often make short videos of this sort for clients… those intending to make upper management aware of some initiative, or trying to make the value of a new innovation clear in plain English. Having seen this I wonder if some of my videos have been so… brainwashed.
That video really, really creeped me out. I wish I could explain exactly why. But all I can manage is that I hope this doesn’t turn out to be the future of gaming.
Creepy.
“Let us take you into the mind of our perfect consumers. This is the way they are. Really. No really.”
Reminds me of a video I saw a few weeks back. Ten year-olds talking into the camera and telling the viewer (advertising agencies) what they will want in 10 years from now, shopping-wise. It was, “This is how we will want to shop in ten years, mf’er, so listen up.” Just creepy as hell. Ick.
Lewis…although there is sometimes a grain of truth in stereotypes, which is how they come to be in the first place, they are never reasonable, seldom analyzed, and accepted because to do so is easier than testing assumptions. They usually come from blind belief, or intellectual laziness, not knowledge, and are so often just plain wrong. Maybe those of us who hang out here are unusual, maybe not, but it’s clear to me that Microsoft never asked US what we want in gaming.
Then again, nobody ever went broke catering to the lowest common denominator. Sigh.
I really don’t enjoy casual games mat, absolutely, but I’ve no problem if someone wants to spend hours playing them. It’s their time, not mine. As for GFWL, I’ve never read anything on it as I have no interest in it. Obviously if it’s integrated in this way into a future OS, I’d be mad if I didn’t have the ability to avoid using it.
I still really have no problem with the video, it’s marketed to the general consumer who do fit the stereotype. One of my staff at work spends all her free time playing Farmville, she’s 38! This is her cup of tea.
I find that video embarrassing more than anything else.
It began in earnest with the Xbox 360 update from the 5 blades (remember that?) to the … whatever it is now. Avatar world? Everything about the 360 dashboard (and this video) screams: “Games are social, and that’s a fun buzz word, isn’t it? And your life is on the go, look at all you have to do!”
Christ, we’ve been telling ourselves for so long that our lives are “on the go,” and here Microsoft try to take that to a new level of forced living. “This is how you live your life, isn’t it! Because that’s how we say you do! Because that’s what’s… the in thing? Isn’t it? So say we all! Right?”
I don’t find it creepy because I really don’t think this GFWL 2.0 or WGX will come to fruition. Microsoft’s whole Xbox dashboard is already so bloody saccharine it’s sickening. All over the top ooey-gooey soft, round-faced hippity-hoppity little digital people … “XBOX! FRIENDS! NETWORKING! SOCIAL! CLOUD! BUZZ WORDS THAT DON’T MEAN ANYTHING! LOOK, THERE’S MAJOR NELSON, AND LOOK, THERE’S AN IGN GIRL. I GUESS GIRLS FINALLY PLAY GAMES! WOWEE, GAMING TRULY IS ALL THAT!” I can’t see it flourishing outside the 360. Your stereotyped friends and family can’t gather ’round the PC like they can the television.
Quite honestly it’s just sad. Especially when you compare it to the other two consoles in the room. The Wii’s dashboard of screens and floating-on-air ambient backing is hardly offensive; it attunes one quite well to Nintendo’s whole schtick: nostalgia.
Then there’s PS3’s sensible, uncluttered, sleek Xross Media Bar (is that still what they call it?) which is far and away the best looking console interface, because it doesn’t scream “Look at me, I’m bloody embarrassing!” or “Hello, I’m s’ goddamn fucking hip, come play with me.” No, it just says “Here I am, no waste to be had. Enter.”
Sad, Microsoft. Just sad.
“The future of PC gaming is here.”
“Will you accept this cow?”
Hah hah! Throwing up in my mouth was the response I had to this as well Mat.
What a gem to wake up to on Monday. It was at the top of Kotaku, RPS, and Tap. If I were a superstitious man, I’d think it was an ill sign for the week.
“Will you accept this cow?”
We have to find a way to work that into our general communications.
Mat said: “The long and short of it is that the experience of using GFW would become very console centric.”
I think Steam sort of does this, but does it right. One of the major complaints about PC gaming back in the day was the difficult installations, autoexec.bat file tweaking, system requirement analysis and so on that made it all so hard for people who didn’t want to deal. By comparison, a Super Nintendo just asked you to hit the start button, and you were gaming.
Steam more or less brought that experience to the PC, and we’re all better for it. What MS is trying to do here (or suggesting anyway) is taking away the ease of use for nickle and dime bullshit driven by a capitalist bottom line mentality.
I said it elsewhere, but we already have Facebook. I can access it on any of my PCs anytime I want. Why force it upon us by way of GFWL? It still disgusts me when I try to play Red Faction, and am FORCED to run GFWL if I wanna save my game. Having that apply to all Microsoft games could easily mean I stop buying those products.
Ditto, Armand.
Ditto for me, too.
Obviously this isn’t my specialist field, but games that rely on GFWL support would suffer the most for this. Presumably, your copy of Red Faction wouldn’t just force you to save your progress using GFWL, but would also burden you with avatars, Facebook and Twitter feeds, friends lists, “likes” and “dislikes”, prompts to download similar content etc etc..
Some people will like that, sure, but as an outsider looking in that doesn’t strike me as something that many PC gamers actually want or need. Steam provides some of those things already, but personally I think in a less obnoxious way.
The NXE/XMB example is a good one, Max. When I use Sonys XMB, I feel like I’m using a tool to access my stuff as quickly as possible. To me, browsing the NXE dashboard feels like browsing a shopping catalogue, with constant prompts to spend money, download stuff or watch video content from IGN.. which for what it’s worth I don’t want to do anywhere or under any circumstances.
Matt, “Will you accept this cow?” just has to become a meme. Make it so.
Wow just wow…..
I don’t even know how to respond to that video.
I have a theory that M$oft is trying to move the gaming industry as a whole towards a 1 platform for all solution. I would imagine it will rely heavily on the whole “cloud gaming” tech and be a socially connected venture too.
Gone will be the days of buying boxed games. No need to build a pc gaming rig. etc. etc.
Some people might like the idea of this but I’m old fashioned I guess. I like that I can build an awesome pc that is at the cutting edge of what games can do. I like that I am not ALWAYS connected to these companies’ servers and they ALWAYS know my personal info. I even liked the variety of games that the different platforms offer.
Gone are the days when you could buy a game for 40 dollars and get lots of enjoyment out of that. Now we have nonsense in the form of DLC doubling and sometimes trippling the price of games and they have this DLC ready for day 1! I can understand offering content 6 months into the games release but day 1! come on… Whatever happened to expansion packs? The value you get in the form of DLC is just plain silly.
OK I am done ranting for now…… Good write up as always Mat.